Berlusconi to testify over kidnapping of terror suspect

Milan: An Italian judge has decided that Premier Silvio Berlusconi will be called to testify in the trial of 26 Americans and several Italians charged with kidnapping a terror suspect during a CIA operation.

Judge Oscar Magi approved the defence request as the case resumed on Wednesday. Magi also ruled that former Premier Romano Prodi will be called to testify.

Berlusconi, who has just been re-elected to another term, is considered a key witness because he was premier when Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr disappeared in February 2003.

Italian prosecutors say Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was abducted on a Milan street as part of the CIA's programme of extraordinary renditions, moving terror suspects from country to country without public legal proceedings.

The CIA has declined comment on the case.

Berlusconi's testimony had been requested by the lawyers of Nicolo Pollari, a former intelligence chief who is one of the defendants in the case.

Pollari hopes that the testimony might help prove that he was against the rendition, lawyers said. He could face from one to 10 years in jail if convicted.